02/13, 9:05pm

VMware Converter 4

VMware has announced the newest update to its converter application that turns physical machines into Vmware virtual machines, VMware Converter 4. The software allows for multiple conversions simultaneously, and offers support for machine formats such as Mircrosoft Windows and Linux. VMware Converter 4 comers with several new support capabilities, hot cloning improvements, and workflow automation enhancements. Users are also given the ability to target disk selections when converting, and to specify how the volumes will be laid out when converted to the virtual machine.

02/13, 5:30pm

Quark Publishing System

In brief: A new file transfer service has been launched that allows clients to transfer large files at speeds greater than standard FTP transfers. Alternativly, a new partnership has been announced between National Electronic Attachment and MacPractice. This partnership will bring new functions to MacPractice's software that will allow clients to submit documents such as x-rays electronically. On another note, a presentation earlier this month demonstrated the functionality of the new Cumulus/Quark Publishing System integration.

02/13, 5:10pm

Apple jailbreaking stance

Apple has publicly defined its legal stance on iPhone jailbreaking, arguing that it represents copyright infringement and a DMCA violation, in response to an exemption filing by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that was submitted to the Copyright Office as part of the 2009 DMCA triennial rulemaking. The foundation proposal asked for an exemption that would allow jailbreaking of iPhones or other handsets, effectively liberating the devices to run applications other than those obtained from Apple's own iTunes App Store.

02/13, 5:05pm

Zii Android HD playback

Creative subsidiary ZiiLabs on Thursday announced it will showcase HD video playback capabilities on February 16th at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The capability will be thanks to the company's ZMS-05 media processor and platform on Google's Android platform phone. ZiiLabs promises to offer 1080p resolution video playback for the first time on handheld devices.

02/13, 5:00pm

DealNN: iPod speaker case

Featured DealNN deals for today include printers, hard drives, GPS units and more. Most noteworthy today is the Sound Labs iMaingo portable iPod speaker case. This protective iPod case fits most iPod models and has built-in speakers making it possible to listen to music without headphones. For today only J&R.com reduced the price on this item from $39.99 to $14.99.

02/13, 4:45pm

Qualcomm 42Mbps chipsets

Chipmaker Qualcomm on Thursday announced a new range of chipsets for mobile devices that include support for dual-carrier HSPA+ data networks. The Qualcomm QTR8610 transceiver supports worldwide 3G bands as well as Bluetooth, GPS, and FM radio capabilities, in addition to a number of codecs that allow it to play back varied multimedia content.

02/13, 4:35pm

Cute Origami, Flash Notes

DaVita GFR Calculator ($1) measures kidney function by using a patient's age, serum creatinine level, gender and race. These variables are placed into the MDRD4 (Modification of Diet in Renal Disease) revised equation, which determines glomerular filtration rate. This figure is said to be considered the best measure of kidney function by nephrologists and other kidney professionals. The app additionally allows someone to search for nephrologists, educational websites and the toll-free DaVita phone number.

02/13, 4:35pm

Cowon launches L3 player

Korea's Cowon has finally released its L3 multimedia player, which first appeared back in August. The L3 sports a 7-inch, 800x480 resolution display and runs on Windows CE 5.0. The only details released on its CPU is that it has dual cores. The device has 128MB of SDRAM and ships with 4GB of flash storage space. It can, however, be expanded via an SD memory card slot.

02/13, 4:20pm

No Samsung Android at MWC

Samsung said it has no plans to show a 12-megapixel handset at the Mobile World Congress due to take place next week in Barcelona, Spain, according to a Thursday Telecoms Koreapost. In addition,
Thursday's report of Samsung delaying its debut of a Google Android-powered handset has been confirmed at the same time. The company's mobile marketing chief, Younghee Lee, said the Android handset will be released in the second half of 2009 instead of the initially-planned spring release.

02/13, 4:05pm

Adobe Normalizer 9 API

Datalogics has released Adobe Normalizer 9, an updated version of the developer API used to convert PostScript and Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) files to PDF format. Output can fit standards ranging from PDF 1.2 through to 1.6, as well as PDF/A. Reports can be generated for input material, and users have access to options and parameters also found in Adobe Distiller.

02/13, 4:00pm

Viliv prices S5 MID for US

Viliv has recently announced that its S5 Mobile Internet Device will soon ship to stores in its home market of Korea as well as in US and Europe. The device will be priced at $649 when it is released in the US at the end of March. Four models of the MID will be offered in Korea, with the other markets will only get the Premium version.

02/13, 4:00pm

Apple refurbs: Shuffle

Currently the Apple store is offering a variety of refurbished products from iPods to to Mac accessories. Starting at $39 is the 1GB iPod shuffle in purple, blue, green or silver. For $20 more ($59) get the 2GB shuffle in previous-generation silver, purple, green and blue or current-generation green, pink and blue. Three unibody MacBook models are available: for $1,099 is the 2.0GHz model with 2GB of memory and 160GB hard drive; the 2.4GHz model with 2GB of memory and 250GB hard drive is $1,399; last is the 2.4GHz model with 128GB solid state drive for $1,899. Mac accessories include the wireless keyboard for $69, the AirPort express base station for $79 and the Time Capsule in both 500GB and 1TB capacities for $249 and $399 respectively.

02/13, 3:50pm

LG solar-powered phone

Korea's LG has announced it will unveil a prototype handset that can be recharged by the sun thanks to a solar charge built into its rear panel. Otherwise, the handset looks nearly identical to the company's existing KF750 Secret cellphone, though no other information on its specs was known. The prototype will be shown off in the company's ECO Friendly exhibit and promises to provide enough power for the conventional built-in battery with three minutes of talk time after a 10-minute charge.

02/13, 3:40pm

PHS300 portable Wi-Fi

CradlePoint Technology has announced its PHS300 portable Wi-Fi router is now certified with the Verizon Wireless UM175 USB Modem, for use on the Verizon Wireless network. PHS300 requires no software installation in order to work and lets the router serve as a mobile Wi-Fi access point. Plugging the UM175 USB Modem into the PHS200 router adds 3G data and brings up to 16 people online through a secure link. The PHS300 certification was received by going through the Verizon Wireless' recent open development program.

02/13, 3:35pm

Moto QA4 Lux and QA1 Leak

Motorola is near launching a trio of phones that will be headlined by a rare full touchscreen device, a set of leaked shots at Mobile-Review show. The QA4 will have a 2.8-inch, 240x400 touchscreen with a number pad slider. Few other details have escaped, though the phone will have a tilt sensor and will support CDMA plus EVDO, pointing to a release on Sprint or Verizon.

02/13, 3:15pm

GarageSale 5.2 update

iwascoding has updated GarageSale, its eBay auction utility for the Mac. The software is used to produce auction listings in a WYSIWYG layout, and supports importing images directly from iPhoto or digital cameras including iSights. Users can set details like item attributes, and have the app upload photos automatically via FTP, WebDAV or MobileMe.

02/13, 3:00pm

Android Market Paid Apps

Google this afternoon revealed that Android Market has the infrastructure in place for developers to charge money for apps downloaded through the mobile store. The implementation uses Google Checkout for the backing infrastructure and will let developers set their own prices through the same system used to publish the apps themselves. A limited rollout is planned and will start first with the US in the middle of next week, while Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain coming before the end of March.

02/13, 2:55pm

Netflix through Front Row

A Google Code project, Understudy, now allows Hulu and Netflix streaming video to be played through Apple's Front Row software. Users can subscribe to multiple feeds and select individual videos to watch. The provided feeds for each service can be used, while the program also can automatically discover the user's profile or the feeds can be copied from the clipboard. To view the content, Understudy is accessible from within Front Row and the services and streams are available in the Manage Feeds section.

02/13, 2:25pm

Valentine's Day templates

iPresentee has launched a Valentine's Day Mail Stationary package, the latest addition to its line of templates meant for Apple's Mail software. The new Valentine's Day collection comes complete with 16 different templates. When downloading the artwork, an installer is provided to make sure the templates are stored in the right folder and automatically displayed in the Apple Mail New Message Stationary menu.

02/13, 2:20pm

Nokia Teases 8MP Cam Phone

Nokia today provided a clue on its company blog that it will launch its rumored "Corolla" phone at next week's Mobile World Congress. A photo published at the site (shown here) has an 8-megapixel resolution previously unavailable on Nokia phones, which normally top out at 5 megapixels, and has EXIF metadata that refers to an "undisclosed" device taking the shot with a Carl Zeiss lens.

02/13, 2:15pm

Intic Lock, GarageSale

PDF Merge 2.4 ($14) ) allows users to merge several PDF files into one. Users can drag the files they want to merge to the application and order them to their needs. Version 2.4 includes a new icon and several performance enhancements that increase execution speed. [Download - 0.74MB]

02/13, 1:50pm

Lenovo Y650 now shipping

Sooner than originally expected Lenovo's three-model IdeaPad Y650 range is now available for purchase. The 16-inch notebooks have a 1366x768 resolution LCD, with the base model powered by a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU with a GMA X4500 integrated graphics chipset and 3GB of RAM. Windows Vista Home Premium is pre-loaded onto the 320GB, 5,400RPM hard drive, and a DVD recorder is built-in. A six-cell battery is standard fare, as are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

02/13, 1:20pm

MS Sued for XP Downgrade

Microsoft has been sued this week over claims that the necessity to pay for its Vista-to-XP downgrade program abuses the company's Windows monopoly. Filed in a Seattle federal district court, the lawsuit found by the Seattle Times accuses Microsoft of violating Washington state business and consumer protection laws by creating an unfair license that cost plaintiff Emma Alvarado $59.25 to revert from Windows Vista Business to XP Professional when she bought a Lenovo notebook in June 2008.

02/13, 1:10pm

Mobile Google Spreadsheets

Google has introduced new mobile editing capabilities for its online Spreadsheets application. While a number of phones have previously been able to view Google documents, editing has typically been locked; the first phones to receive editing options are Nokia's S60 series, Apple's iPhone and the T-Mobile G1, so far the only device based on Google's Android platform. The iPhone is also closely associated with Google, mainly as a result of its Google Maps application.

02/13, 1:10pm

MobileMe iDisk file share

Apple has announced that the iDisk service, a feature of MobileMe, can now be used to share large files. Rather than attempt to e-mail files that contain large amounts of data, users can upload the content to a public folder in their iDisk account. After choosing the individuals to share the information with, iDisk will automatically send e-mails containing a download link. The recipient can then access the files or even post their own documents into the folder.

02/13, 12:35pm

Amex photo frame, printer

Amex Digital has recently announced the launch of a 7-inch digital photo frame, the SP-7, that has an integrated photo printer. As with other photo frames of the same size, the LCD screen has an 800x480 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The SP-7 supports JPG photos, can play back AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 movies and MP3 audio files thanks to its built speakers. A built-in card reader is compatible with MS, MMC, SD, XD and CF memory cards.

02/13, 12:30pm

Vjoon K4 CS4 support

Managing Editor Inc. has announced that its vjoon K4 5.9 R8 publishing system is now compatible with Adobe Creative Suite 4. The K4 layout and editing plug-ins for InDesign and InCopy, as well as the K4 modules including Web Editor, File Manager and Overview have been revised to work with the latest Adobe software. The company has also brought CS4 compatibility to its Notes Manager, Overset Manager and Revision Manager plug-ins.

02/13, 12:25pm

Mac Chrome in early phases

The Mac version of Google's Chrome web browser continues to make progress, but at a slow speed, one of its developers hints. Work during the past couple of months is said to have mostly revolved around basic layout tests and WebKit compatibility, and only recently progressed to developing the interface. Links remain non-functional, and renderers are said to regularly crash.

02/13, 12:20pm

Sirius XM Debt Exchange

Sirius XM on Friday took emergency steps to save itself by starting a debt exchange. The company says it has started a deal that will swap about $172.5 million of the convertible senior notes keeping the company afloat for equivalents that will expire at the start of June 2011. The exchange would give the company about 1.5 years of extra time to pay the portion of the debt, which would otherwise have come due in December this year.

02/13, 11:30am

Samsung Show W7900

Samsung this morning officially unveiled the first phone to have Texas Instruments' DLP Pico technology built-in. The Show W7900 for Korea (pictured) and its Euro-centric equivalent, the i7410 both take advantage of the small chipset and a compact projector to cast an image on a screen or wall which is much larger than the phone's LCD: images upwards of 50 inches diagonal are possible in suitably low light. Samsung envisions the feature as letting owners present slideshows directly from phones or for playing videos at a TV-like size.

02/13, 11:25am

Tiered iPhones, plans?

Apple and its American carrier partner, AT&T, are looking at diversifying the pricing tiers for next-generation iPhones, claims Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. Citing industry and supply chain contacts, Wu suggests that Apple is having difficulty not with developing new technology, but in devising options cheaper than the iPhone 3G, which costs a minimum of $200 plus another $70 or more in monthly voice and data fees. The sheer expense of the phone has become a problem in the context of a global recession, says Wu.

02/13, 10:55am

ABI on iPhone Wi-Fi

A new study from ABI Research today notes that iPhone users are much more likely to actually use their Wi-Fi than on rival devices. About 75 percent of all those who have one of Apple's phones are using their Wi-Fi "regularly," while only about 10 percent of those with HTC phones are using theirs. This comes despite 80 percent of HTC's devices having 802.11b or g built-in.

02/13, 10:45am

PSP Hits 50m as PS3 Slumps

Sony today reached an unofficial milestone with news that it has sold its 50 millionth PSP. The achievement comes just over four years after the handheld PlayStation's launch in December 2004 and after two minor revisions to the design that have slimmed it down and added functionality, including a built-in mic in the PSP-3000 for game chat and Skype calls. The game system has also since gained direct access to a download store for PSP and PS1 games that has put increasing reliance on flash-based Memory Stick storage instead of the UMD disc format Sony initially pushed not just for games but for movies.

02/13, 10:05am

Greensboro on Feb. 21

Apple's retail shop in Greensboro, North Carolina will open on February 21st, barring complications, a marketing assistant for the Friendly Center shopping complex is said to inform. The store will be located between Williams-Sonoma and Anthropologie on Avondale, and should not only be the first Apple Store in Greensboro, but the largest to date in North Carolina. The outlet has experienced a number of setbacks on the way to completion.

02/13, 9:35am

Huawei 3G, Wi-Fi USB modem

China's Huawei on Friday introduced what it calls the smallest and lightest USB-connected modem in the world, the i-Mo, which will be shown off at the Mobile World Congress next week in Spain. The modem has an 802.11b/g Wi-Fi link along with HSPA wireless data network access that can reach 7.2Mbps download speeds and 5.76Mbps upload speeds. Thanks to its Wi-Fi connection, the i-Mo can create a hotspot of its own for other users of Internet-connected mobile devices.

02/13, 9:25am

ASMC Presidents Day sale

A number of Apple resellers are staging a Presidents Day sale, a collective announcement reveals. The Apple Specialist Marketing Co-op notes that 2009 will mark the first year the group has held a sale during the holiday weekend, when it is normally impossible to find any discounts on any Apple products. Apple itself typically schedules only one sale period per year, centered around Thanksgiving.

02/13, 9:25am

Nokia App Store Next Week

Nokia will chase after Apple and other rivals with a mobile app portal of its own, a pair of sources claim. The reported contacts explain to Reuters that the software store will be announced at Nokia's press conference for Mobile World Congress on Monday morning. When it will go live and how its pricing strategy will work are unknown, though the shop is likely to be limited to Symbian S60 devices like the 5800 XpressMusic and N97, which have a more complex operating system capable of supporting advanced mobile apps.

02/13, 8:40am

Zune on Phones in 2009

Microsoft on Friday said it will bring features of its Zune music players to other hardware besides Zune players sometime this year. The revelation comes after company Media Center/Mediaroom head Enrique Rodriguez has acknowledged to CNET that Microsoft is splitting the Zune group into separate hardware and software divisions, with the software now being covered by Rodriguez's group while hardware goes to the Windows Mobile group's hardware section. He doesn't say which devices will get the features but argues the move is necessary to expand Microsoft's reach into media beyond just its own hardware.

02/13, 7:40am

Nokia CWM New Phones

Nokia on Friday used one of the last days before Mobile World Congress to add multiple new phones to the Comes With Music roster. In addition to existing phones that come with the year-long unlimited music subscription, such as the N96, an introduction of the service into Singapore is also bringing both high- and low-end phones into the mix with the N79, N85, 5800 XpressMusic, 5320 XpressMusic and 5220 XpressMusic all getting the same option. The addition has the same rights as in other countries and lets owners keep any music they've downloaded once the subscription is over.

02/13, 6:45am

Acoustibuds for earphones

Burton Ideas has launched Acoustibuds, an earphone attachment that is designed to enhance the sound of earphones and help make them fit more comfortably. Acoustibuds attatch to the speaker side of earphones and are shaped like little cones with flexible fins on the outside. The cone like shape places the earphone deeper into a person's ear and allows for sound to be funneled more directly into the eardrum, while the flexible fins help with comfort and keeping the earphones in place.

02/13, 1:05am

StatPlus:mac updated

AnalystSoft has updated StatPlus:mac, improving ease-of-use and adding new graphics and calculations. The package has the same features as the Microsoft Analysis Toolpak offered in Excel 2004, but StatPlus:mac works with both Excel 2004 and 2008. The new release adds more data analysis types and a number of brand-new graphs, statistical charts and control charts like CUSUM and XBar chart, that are not available in Microsoft Excel.